I just called the school district to let them know that we are not signing the IEP for Noah.

We already called our lawyer (and we love him soooo much), and things are in motion.
It’s a little bit scary, and a little bit exciting!

I have to tell you–we are so incredibly thankful for the resources we have in order to help Noah.
–We have the best special ed. lawyer for Autism in Southern California.
–There are generous people that bless us with enough funding to pay for said lawyer (and sometimes we can win the money back…part of it)
–We had the resources and smarts enough to do research about the treatment options for Noah early
–We had a doctor that suggested that Noah’s odd behaviors before he was 2 years old were due to autism
–We had medical insurance to pay for Noah’s diagnoses at the age of 25 months
–We had the tenacity to fight for Noah’s care
–We had an eye-opening and life-changing experience at an autism help-group that inspired us to get the level of care for Noah that we now have
–We have one-on-one in-home ABA therapy for Noah for 33 hours a week funded by the state of CA.
–We have a team of therapists that have taught Noah skills and knowledge that Kindergardeners don’t even have. They are phenomenal.
–We have Lovaas. The best care for Autism. It’s all we prayed and hoped for when moving back to Los Angeles.
–We have hope in our God that He holds the life of our precious son in His hands. That is something that no one will ever be able to take away from us. We know that Noah is God’s child, and that God is molding and shaping his life with His mighty hands.

Tonight is Noah’s 4th birthday party at 5:30pm.
You are all invited.

God is good.

I’m an extrovert.
An ESTJ, to be exact (at least, according to Myers-Briggs), but I’m not crazy. I’m not one of those people that introduces themselves to everyone they see or come into contact with. I’m also not the person that has been taking Nathaniel to and from school everyday for the last year (plus), so Back-to-School night was a little awkward. I got there early thinking I would get to hang out and meet people or whatever, but there was just a sign on the door saying that the teacher was at another meeting until the minute our session was supposed to start. So I stood outside with the seven thousand other parents in a large general area, waiting and not talking to anyone…eh.
I suppose it was good to see his classroom and at least meet the teacher, but I think my wife would have benefitted from going much more than I. She is the one that is there twice a day…I’m there rarely (and come on, it’s not ’cause I’m a bad dad–I just working during school hours).
In summation, I think Christy should be present at these events in the future. It was weird and I felt out of place. That said, I did put myself on an email list…so that might be a good thing.

Heroes was great–a good start to a new chapter. I can tell that great story is coming and I wasn’t disappointed by it at all.

I also had to watch Pan’s Labyrinth for my film scoring class. It was a surprisingly good film. I really liked it.

Class tonight–and then THE OFFICE!

Currently Eating: Great Grains (Raisins, Dates, and Pecans) with Nonfat Milk.

I always thought they should add a currently eating section to the “currently doing” stuff section. That way I could put things like Ham & Cheese sandwich, or Nonfat Latte, or Kit-Kat Bar (not that I eat any of those things).

Thoughts floating around in my brain whilst I am on my lunch break:

I’m so proud of my wife. She watched the entire season of Heroes in just under a week to get ready for tonight’s premiere. She really wanted to watch the show when it first started, and I could have cared less. Then she thought it was too violent for her, but at the urging of friends I kept watching–downloading episodes from iTunes to watch on my iPod while working out. I knew I was hooked when I the cheerleader woke up on the autopsy table. I think I screamed out loud at the gym…Well, I watched all season with Joe while Christy piddled around on her email or something. But at the urging of some of her friends she got back into it via DVD, and now she loves it!
Wahoo! I’m very excited about tonight!

I think I also need to watch Pan’s Labyrinth tonight. I have to watch that movie this week for my film scoring class and tonight might be the night. I’ve heard great things about this movie, so I’m looking forward to watching it. Just a note of clarification, the teacher didn’t actually select this movie because of it’s exceptional score, it was selected by our class. This assignment doesn’t rely on the movie, it is more to make us aware of the scores of movies in general. I used to be VERY aware of scores when I was watching movies–but something happened and I often don’t disconnect from the story like I used to in order to hear the score. Now I guess I just watch and get all caught up…oh no!! I remember vividly walking out of the theatres after just watching Batman Returns and thinking “What a great score!”. I think that was my first soundtrack purchase. Time moves on…and I have way more John Williams scores than any other film composer. Danny Elfman might be a close second though…

Tuesday night is “Back to School Night”. I have no idea what this is. I’ve only been to one, last year, and I don’t really get it. What is it for? What happens? Why can’t the kids come? Can someone explain this to me? (Christy tried, but I think I still don’t understand it…possibly because I’ve never heard of it until right now…er…I guess last year.) I’m not opposed to it, I just don’t understand the purpose of the function. HELP!

Christmas is fast approaching. So is Halloween. I’m not particularly looking forward to Halloween this year. I think I’m tired of my Star Trek costume, but I don’t know what to wear otherwise. HELP!

Noah has his IEP tomorrow.
Noah also turns 4 on Wednesday. Happy Birthday buddy!

Heroes…Heroes…Heroes…
I can’t wait!

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted! Yikes!

Christy’s been watching Heroes in preparation of upcoming premiere. She loves it! Horrah! She didn’t watch a lick of it last year, so I’m so glad we’ll be able to enjoy it together this year. What a good show…

I’m pretty sick and tired of hearing about OJ Simpson. Who cares.

I’m typing this from my new laptop. This one is my work computer, and was issued to me today by APU. It’s pretty cool!

School started for me last night. It was very exciting to be back! I took two quarters off (plus the summer) to write the Gala of Stars for Concordia University, and I feel like I haven’t been to school in forever.
I’m taking a film scoring class from a guy that has done many films and TV scores. He was one of two people that worked on The Terminator soundtrack. This guy played violin on it, and the other guy was the composer. (Obviously he’s done a lot since then, I mean, that was twenty years ago). Needless to say, I’m stoked. The other few units will be independent study. I think this will be my last easy semester. The rest of my schooling will be really difficult. I’ve left all the crazy hard classes for last. Geez…a little stupid of me, but oh well. It helped me get used to the notion of being back in school, and I feel like I’m a little more grounded in a routine now so that should help too.

Why do I love snorg tees so much? I can’t explain it! They have a couple of funny new shirts…

Let me see…a few other things I don’t care about…Britney Spears…The Emmys…The Sopranos…Phil Spektor…

Work at APU is cookin’
I mean–our office is hopping. I’m staying crazy busy, but it’s really great. I enjoy it very much.

I vegged out last night. I haven’t done that in a long time. It was weird. I also got to hang out with my little sons–for the whole night. Christy has grad classes from 4:45 to 11PM on Tuesdays, so it’s all me and the boys. I think I’ll make it a boys fun night from now on. Kind of a “Daddy Day”…which sounds very exciting. I love my boys–even though they can drive me crazy sometimes–they’re awesome.

I also had a very frustrating conversation with Wamu this morning. It wasn’t a good start to the day.

I have way too many passwords. I can’t keep track…it’s horrible.
I used to have one password for everything dating back to when I first needed one–for my hotmail email account (we’re talking 1995 here…). This worked wonders until paypal and ebay started requiring more than 5 or 6 digits. Then everything started requiring a login–online banking, online billpay for all of the different bills (cell phone, gas & electric, insurance) and they all started requiring longer passwords. OK. So I add a little bit to my password and modify it to make it longer…no biggie…until someone hacks my paypal account and steals $800.00 (about 3 years ago). Ah, I’ll change my password every once and a while then…so I get two that I switch back and forth with.
But now I have several sites that have my original password because they require less security (and have mostly directory information–no credit card numbers or anything) and several sites with one of my modified passwords. Then I have to create a new loooooong password for my VISA login page…OK…but then APU requires I change my login password every 6 months…I just can’t keep track anymore!!
 
I’m losing my mind!

On another note–Midway was awesome, as usual…and we bought Arrested Development Season One on DVD for $20 from Target. Not only is that a great deal for a TV show–but it’s a hilarious show! Too bad it was only three seasons total…

So I went to bed at about 1AM on Tuesday night–not finished with the Dalmations thing that I had to be finished with in the following morning–so I woke up at 4:45AM, knocked it out, and made it to work by 8:02AM. Yeah baby.

So last night I took a well deserved break.
We celebrated at BJs with a fancy BBQ Chicken Pizza and a Pazookie, and I bought a Nifty Gifty for myself…The Office Season 3 on DVD (Nifty Gifty Edition from Target).

Let me interject that The Office is absolutely my favorite show on TV right now. I have been a long time hard core fan of SNL, and there are several great shows out there right now that I’m addicted to (LOST, Heroes…Battlestar Gallactica) but none of them are anywhere close to The Office.

So I watched the special features from the first disc. Amazing. There are literally 8-10 minutes of deleted scenes from every episode. Watching them all in a row was like watching new stories unfold. They were often very hilarious. There is one line from the season opener that Dwight said that Joe and I laughed about for a good 5 minutes. It made the whole DVD worth it. I could have stopped watching after that and been completely satisfied…totally hilarious. I also caught an episode commentary that was pretty OK. The deleted scenes are better…and I’ve only seen disc one.

So…who’s up for more Office special features at lunch today? Anyone?

EDIT ADD:

Man. I’d much rather hang out with my family than sit in front of my 23″ HD Apple Display–as cool as that is.
Well–i think I’m done with this Disney gig. Everyone go watch the new Dalmations DVD, I play piano on two of the songs.

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Working all day and all night stinks.

This is just too much. I’ve got to do less composing.